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Thursday, 15 March 2018

Cambrian Rally - Local Competitor Report by Paul Willetts

The event was
the opening round of both BTRDA and Welsh championship and attracted just 104
starters.Ross Motor
Club’s Will Rogers teamed up with Tom Naughton for the first time and the duo
got off to a solid start to hold 10th overall and 2nd in Group N after stage
two, just four seconds off early class leader Russ Thompson. But a loose
turbo pipe on the next test in Crafnant cost them 20 seconds and they dropped
to third in Group N at service. After taking a
few seconds back on their rivals in stage four Alwen, they returned for a
re-run of Penmachno South which was now very rough. It brought an
end to their rally when they cut a left hand bend a bit tight and hit a rut
that sent them across the road and off into the undergrowth, luckily without
any real damage.“It was a bit
disappointing to slide off,” Rogers said.“But the state
of the roads were not good, it’s not the thing you’d expect on a national
championship event to be honest.”

Another former
Group N front runner Sacha Kakad switched to a new Ford Fiesta R5 together with
regular co-driver James Aldridge in the Westbased-backed car had an event to
forget, when started motor issues brought retirement before they got to the
stages.

Scott Partridge
had a new co-driver in the shape of Beverley Mace in their Subaru Impreza and
finished 51st overall and 11th in class.

James Dunkley
was another with a new co-driver in Paul Barbet in the Jim Dunkley Auto
Services backed Vauxhall Corsa finished 67th and 13th in class.

The event was
won by the new Proton Iziz R5 of Ollie Mellors and Max Freeman by just six
seconds from the Focus WRC of Paul Bird and Jack Morton.